Counterphobic attitude
Counterphobic attitude is a response to anxiety that, instead of fleeing the source of fear in the manner of a phobia, actively seeks it out, in the hope of overcoming the original anxiousness.Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (1946) p. 480-1 In terms of avoidant personality disorder, the counterphobic represents the less usual, but not totally uncommon, response of apparently seeking out what is feared:Martin Kantor, The Essential Guide to Overcoming Avoidant Personality Disorder (2010) p. 30 codependents may fall into a subcategory of this group, hiding their fears of attachment in over-dependency.Kantor, p. 36 Action Dare-devil activities are often undertaken in a counterphobic spirit, as a denial of the fears attached to them - a denial that may be only partially successful.Salman Akhtar, Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2009) p. 60 Acting out in general may have a counterphobic source,Judy Cooper, Speak of Me as I Am (2011) p. 66 reflecting a false self over-concerned with compulsive doing to preserve a sense of power and control.Rosalind Minsky, Psychoanalysis and Gender (1996) p. 122 Sex is a key area for counterphobic activity, sometimes powering hypersexuality in people who are actually afraid of the objects they believe they love.Fenichel, p. 518 Adolescents, fearing sex play, may jump over to a kind of spurious full sexuality;D. W. Winnicott, The Child, the Family, and the Outside World (1973) p. 218 adults may overvalue sex to cover an unconscious fear of the harm it may do.Julia Segal, Melanie Klein (2001) p. 46 Such a counterphobic approach may indeed be socially celebratedLesley Caldwell ed., '' Sex and Sexuality'' (2010) p. 116 in a postmodern vision of sex as gymnastic performance or hygieneElisabeth Roudinesco, Philosophy in Turbulent Times (2008) p. xi - fuelled by what Ken Wilbur described as "an exuberant and fearless shallowness".Ken Wilbur, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (2000) p. 7 Traffic accidents have been linked to a counterphobic, manic attitude in the driver.Graham P. Bartley, Traffic Accidents (2008) p. 166 Language Julia Kristeva considered that language could be used by the developing child as a counterphobic object,Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror (1982) p. 41 protecting against anxiety and loss.Adam Phillips, On Flirtation (1994) p. 82-3 Ego psychology points out that through the ambiguities of language, the concrete meanings of words may break down the counterphobic attitude and return the child to a state of fear.Selma H. Fraiberg, The Magic Years (1987) p. 123-5 Freud Didier Anzieu saw Freud's theorisation of psychoanalysis as a counterphobic defence against anxiety through intellectualisation - permanently ruminating on the instinctive, emotional world that was the actual object of fear.Didier Anzieu, Freud's Self-Analysis (1986) p. 182 and p. 577-581 Wilhelm Fliess has been seen as playing the role of counterphobic object for Freud during the period of the latter's self-analysis.Lydia Flem, Freud the Man (2003) p. 59 Therapy Otto Fenichel considered that underdoing systematised counterphobic defences was only a first step in therapy, needing to be followed by analysis of the original anxiety itself.Fenichel, p. 485 He also considered that psychological trauma could break down counterphobic defences, with results that "may be very painful for the patient; they are, from a therapeutic point of view, favorable".Fenichel, p. 549-53 David Rapaport emphasised the need for caution and extreme slowness in analyzing counterphobic defences.David Rapaport, 'The Autonomy of the Ego', in Glen T. Morris ed., Dimensions of Psychology (nd) p. 14 Cultural examples The attraction of horror movies has been seen to lie in a counterphobic impulse.Robert Newman, Transgressions of Reading (1993) p. 63 Actors often have a shy personality, released counterphobically in conditions of performance.Kantor, p. 62 See also * Accident-proneness * Counterdependency * Exposure therapy * Extraversion * Overcompensation * Positive thinking * Reaction formation * Screen memory * Schizoid personality disorder * Sexual fetishism References Further Reading *Ernst Kris, 'Ego Development and the Comic', International Journal of Psychoanalysis XIX (1938) *Nina Searl, 'The Flight to Reality', International Journal of Psychoanalysis X (1929) *Thomas S. Langer, Choices for Living (2002) External links * Francis Drossart, 'Counterphobic' * 'Counterphobic Behavior' * E. Poznanski/B. Arthur, 'The Counterphobic Defence in Children' Category:Defence mechanisms Category:Phobia Category:Psychoanalytic terminology